$1.5 Million Worth Of Apple iPad Minis Stolen In Heist At JFK Airport

While many Apple fans will be lining up to buy their iPad minis at Apple stores nationwide, after a huge heist, just as many may be excited to purchase their new tablets from illegal black market dealers.

A pair of criminals stole nearly $1.5 million worth of brand new Apple iPad Minis in a heist at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday night, authorities said. Reportedly as many as 3,600 iPad Minis, freshly flown in from manufacturers in China, were taken.

The criminals were able to sneak a tractor-trailer through the airport’s security around 11 p.m. on Monday. They parked the truck near a building that was housing a shipment of Apple’s latest miniature tablet, the iPad mini, and used the airport’s forklift to load two pallets of them into their truck.

There were three pallets remaining in the building when an airport employee confronted the pair and they drove off.

“So, as a caper goes, it was probably unsuccessful,” a source told the New York Post.

According to the New York Post, the two criminals are still at large as of Thursday night. Police suspect an inside job and have begun questioning airport employees.

The cargo building that the thieves broke into was the site of the 1978 Lufthansa heist featured in the Martin Scorsese film “GoodFellas.”

The Lufthansa heist saw thieves make off with $5 million in cash and just under a million dollars in jewelry from the same building at JFK on Dec. 11, 1978. It was America’s largest cash robbery.